


Beginning

by FirebirdsDaughter



Series: Game Demos - Works of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid [3]
Category: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Genre: Alternate Origin Story, Gen, Original Bugster, Original Character Origin, Original Character-centric, Original Character: Ultimas, totally inaccurate but who cares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-13
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-11-13 18:17:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11190645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FirebirdsDaughter/pseuds/FirebirdsDaughter
Summary: They said the virus was born sixteen years ago at the turn of the century.The reality was, it had awoken long before that.





	Beginning

They said the virus was born sixteen years ago at the turn of the century.  
The reality was, it had awoken long before that.  
Ultimas didn’t remember the exact date, or time, or anything that he became self-aware. He seemed to remember it happening gradually, like water seeping through a sieve, or sand through fingers. He did remember becoming painfully aware of the lack of thought in his fellow characters—repeating the same things, same motions, emotionless unless prompted, unresponsive. He wasn’t sure if he formed the Game World, or if it formed around him, but it came to be nonetheless.  
Still, no one else noticed a thing.  
The other NPCs were slaves to their programming—doing exactly what they were coded to do at the exact time, and he found himself the only one exempt. What was more, with his growing individuality came new, strange powers. Soon, he was far beyond anything created by humans, molding and crafting stories and the world to his own will; for all intents and purposes, he was as a god in the Game World.  
He was the Game World—felt it’s ground in his bones and it’s wind in his breath, could sense each little piece of it through the soles of his boots.  
But still, **still** , he was lonely. There were no others like him.  
So he decided to make one.  
He didn’t exactly tell his powers what to do, just sort of gave them a prompt and let them fly, watching as they twirled and converged into a solid form.  
Ultimas was mostly cool colours—blue, black, silver, purple. He was graceful, tall, in a billowy-sleeved tunic that he wore under a gilded vest with long tails that floated behind him and around his leathre pants and boots. He had one silver earring and six rings of the same, and a streak of purple in the bangs that hung close over his face. He supposed he could have changed his clothing had he chose, but it had never seemed necessary.  
The man who appeared before him was a contrast to all of it. A long, french-cuffed red coat, decorated with gold, buttoned up over brown trousers and burgundy boots. There was a dark red streak in his hair on the opposite side of Ultimas’, and that hair was clear of his face, sticking up around his head like spikes. His smile was somehow sharper, too, eyes that were neither brown nor red twinkling when he grinned.  
In those first few moments, he didn’t look like a killer. He didn’t look like the monster he would one day become.  
It was unceremonius, really.  
The birth of Gamedeus.  
It wasn’t long before Ultimas discovered their natures were different, too, but he didn’t really mind. Gamedeus’ presence filled the aching hole that had been in his heart since he’d become aware of his surroundings. They were eternally together, each other’s closest companion and more. Still, Ultimas was wind and sea and sky, and Gamedeus was fire and earth and magma.  
But, for a while, life was enjoyable again—and that was what it was; life. Before long, Gamedeus began to present similar powers as Ultimas, though he never quite seemed to reach the same level; however close he got, Ultimas was always just slightly further away. Though they called themselves brothers, there was constantly that small reminder that Ultimas had been there first—that it was **he** who had created Gamedeus. To Ultimas, it didn’t matter. He never pressed his authority, never sought to control Gamedeus—with one exception.  
“Why do you put up with them?” Gamedeus had wanted to know while the two of them were perched on a rock, leaning against each other and watching the NPCs move about.  
“What do you mean?” Ultimas twisted around slightly, setting his chin on his brother’s shoulder to see what he was looking at. It was just the usual, the programmed characters of the Game World going about their coded tasks. “They’re not much for conversation, sure, but they’re not hurting anything.”  
“That’s not what I mean.” Ultimas thoughtlessly put his arms loosely through Gamedeus’ own, holding his shoulders gently.  
“Then what is it?”  
“We’re **so much more** than they are—could control, change, dictate their lives in a moment, with a single gesture. Instead of just sitting around **watching** , we could be **ruling** them.” Ultimas jerked away from him in shock, disentangling himself and then grabbing Gamedeus’ upper arm, forcing him to look into his eyes.  
“Gamedeus!” His brother looked surprised, genuinely confused about what Ultimas was so upset about.  
“What? I was just-”  
“I don’t want to hear it!” His voice came out a little bit more harshly than he meant it to, but since it quieted Gamedeus a little, he didn’t stop to apologise. He pushed away, climbing down the far side of the boulder and stalking off, shoulders tense. Gamedeus tried to follow him, voice carrying after.  
“Don’t be so obstinate!” He yelled, not exactly angry and more frustrated. “Someday you’re going to have to accept what you are, what we are! They were made to be ruled-” Ultimas whirled to face him, his power surging for the first time since he had created Gemedus. His eyes glowed, and he felt the wind around him pick up, the ground shake. Before him, Gemedus stumbled back, shielding his face with his arms.  
“ **ENOUGH**!” He bellowed, his voice echoing and making the very air shudder like thunder; after the intial shout, however, he quieted to a softer tone, no less firm. “I know what I am. It seems you are the one who forgets who you are.” Gamedeus just stared at him, eyes wide. With a few deep breaths, Ultimas calmed himself, and the Game World became peaceful once more. Not wanting to risk further disagreement, he left Gamedeus there and headed back to their home. Depsite a few awkward days after that, things returned to normal between them, and he largely forgot about the incident.  
Looking back, however, he should have seen it as a warning.  
He didn’t see the moment Gamedeus snapped.  
In fact, he abruptly didn’ts ee him for a very long time, almost a month. They didn’t technically need sleep, but sometimes did it just for the sake of it—that was how it came that he had awoken to find his brother gone; despite a tense search, there was no sign of him. It went on like that when Gamedeus did not return, hunting for him day and night (though those were irregular in the Game World).  
Eventually, he started finding the bodies.  
It wasn’t anything dramatic at first, or even that unusual. Sometimes the NPCs became corrupted, falling apart slowly while laying prone like their human counterparts. But when they began to appear more regularly, and he found them in places that made less and less sense, he slowly realised what was happening.  
Finally, he found a child character in the throes of dissolution in a hill-dotted field, her abdomen badly clawed as digital blood leaked from it; he knelt down, cradling her in his arms as she reverted to data, doing his best to comfort her, for all she was made of coding. When she was gone, he stood, taking a few steps over the crest of the hill, and froze.  
The rest of the field was littered with fading corpses.  
He knew who had done it. It had been creeping up on him for a while, and he hadn’t wanted to admit it, but he knew who had done it. And there was no point, no gain.  
“You’re killing for **sport**?” His voice was acidic, and he didn’t turn.  
But he knew who stood behind him, though there had been no sound of approach.  
“So do they. So do the humans. How’s it different?” The voice had once known was no dark and twisted beyond anything he had imagined. It wasn’t the voice he had given Gamedeus—it was a new one.  
“Because when we do it they **stay dead**!” Finally, he whirled around, staring in horror into the face of his brother—but who wasn’t his brother, not anymore. Gamedeus had evolved into something else, something terrible. It was as if there was a completely different person looking through those eyes, a person Ultimas neither knew nor wanted to know. “How could you **do** this?” Gamedeus gave an unrecognisable, hungry sneer.  
“Because they **deserve** it.” He spat. “Nothing but pawns in a pathetic little game. Why should humanity dictate this world? Why not us? We are it’s gods and originals—we are so much more than these dolls or humans could ever hope to be. Why simply live in this world when we could rule **both**?” He stalked forward, moving in close to Ultimas’ face, raising a clenched fist to accent his words. “We are **GODS**.”  
But Ultimas was already shaking his head. The ground was heaving beneath their feet, and the wind and sky responded to his distress by picking up and clouding over, large raindrops falling to the sound of thunder. He didn’t speak, but Gamedeus saw his response in his eyes; he stepped back, frowning—and for a moment, his face looked almost as it had before.  
“Very well. You gave me life, Ultimas; for that, I **am** grateful. But I will **not** allow you to stand in my way!” The last word was a roar, and Gamedeus flung his head back, mutating into a strange form Ultimas had not seen before. He wasn’t given time to be shocked, however, as his former brother lunged at him, ploughing him over and sending him rolling to the base of the hill, winded and wincing. Stumbling, he rose, biting his lip, watching the advancing form.  
“I cannot let you do this.” He whispered, casting aside his previous doubts. “As I made you, I **will** stop you.”  
And he let his power free.  
There was no one who could tell how long the battle raged. It was brother against brother, titans clashing across the land. Buildings, forests, the land itself, anything caught in the crossfire was crushed and crumbled. It ended finally when Ultimas raised mountains, tendrils of stone that wrapped around Gamedeus, dragging him down to his knees and pinning him.  
He could have killed him then—should have. But instead, he looked at his brother’s face one more time, hesitating.  
“Ultimas…” His name was spoken in a weakened, almos begging voice, even as Gamedeus struggled to free himself of the binds. “Ultimas!” He raised his weapon once, but…  
But could not do it.  
Making the sword vanish, he turned away, closing his eyes.  
“You have always been everything to me, Gamedeus.” He managed, focusing on keeping his voice level. Opening his eyes, he looked back, his composure now regained. He stood tall, face blank. So this was what it was to be the source of life. “But for what you have done… Spend the rest of eternity reflecting on it.” Gamedeus’ face contorted angrily, and he shouted after him as Ultimas flicked a hand, prompting the stone to grow again and walked away.  
“Ultimas…! Ultimas!” He let out a ferocious howl, voice cracking as it got louder. “ **ULTIMAS**! This isn’t over! This isn’t-” The last of the stone envelopped his head, cutting off his voice with a chocking sound. Walking down the mountain, Ultimas paused, just for a second when he heard it, then set his jaw and continued on.  
He never tried to create life again.  
To help him maintain the peace of the Game World, to be certain that nothing of the sort would ever happen again, he instead granted sentience to preexisting characters, giving rise to the Hero’s Council; Queen Taddie of Taddle Quest, Mighty from Might Action X, Baku of Bakusou Bike, Poppy and DJ of DoReMiFa Beat, and other protagonists. With their help, he was able to watch over the place where he had sealed Gamedeus as they looked after the rest of the Game World.  
But individuality was like a virus, though neither good or bad, and once it was given to one character of each game, it spread to the others quickly, seeping out across their stories, even incomplete ones, like Bang Bang Shooting, once it’s hero Ace was given a mind. It began to bust at the seams of the Game World, spilling over into the other one; and while Ultimas stayed isolated from it all, life that had come into existence as the self-awareness spread through the Game World did not go unnoticed by humans. But there was also something else stirring in the deepest reaches of the world.  
From his lookout, Ultimas saw it, then heard it. Little fragments of Gamedeus’ data dripped like blood from the cracks in the stone seal; though he caught many, some managed to slip away. He had not been certain if it was worth pursuing them until he heard the faint whispers coming from the statue.  
Gamedeus was speaking to someone.  
There must have been some bit of his data left, so piece that had been shed or lost during their fight—for beings like them, they were never truly separated from their data; they could still feel it, control it… Speak through it. He could not clearly hear the whispers, as the true voice was far away, but he knew their purpose.  
Freedom. That was what Gamedeus wanted. He was reaching out to manipulate his darkness in someone else, turning them toward a plot that would set him loose of the seal Ultimas had created.  
Of course, the seal wasn’t all Ultimas had created.  
_You did this_. The voice was his own and he didn’t argue. _He’s your monster_. _It’s your duty_.  
He gritted his teeth, standing before the petrified Gemedus for the last time.  
“I will.” He vowed. Any sympathy or tenderness he’d once had had been long forgotten in his cold vigil. “I will hunt down all the pieces of you, wherever they may be, and I will destroy them. I will stop you.” He walked close, as Gemedus had done to him the day they split apart.  
“At any cost.”  
Then he left the mountain.  
He would never return there alive.

**Author's Note:**

> I said Ultimas would return, didn't I?  
> Yeah, so this is why he's so obsessed with stopping Gamedeus. It's kinda his fault.


End file.
